Two fathers, two sons, two tales

Father’s quest for son brings HC to police station

A 25-year-old man has gone missing from Oshiwara police station lock-up, said cops. Two judges of Bombay High Court will visit the site on Saturday to verify the claim.

Justice RMS Khandeparkar and Justice VK Tahilramani will visit Oshiwara police station at 11 am to see for themselves the alleged escape route used by Amman Sajjad Siddiqui, an accused in a kidnapping case, in March.

Additional public prosecutor VD Konde-Deshmukh and senior police officers would accompany the judges. Amman was picked up by Oshiwara police in connection with the alleged kidnapping of a local bar dancer.

The judges’ keen interest to get to the root of the police story echoes the controversy surrounding the disappearance of Khwaja Yunus, who went missing in January 2003 after being arrested in connection with the 2002 Ghatkopar blast.

This was the second time that Amman had escaped from custody. He was first arrested on March 4 after Meera Thakur filed an FIR against him and others for kidnapping her daughter, Dolly, 19, a bar girl.

Meera alleged that Amman frequented the bar where Dolly worked. Amman said that Dolly was in Delhi, and accompanied police to the capital to locate her. The bar girl couldn’t be traced, but she soon returned home on her own. And Amman managed to give police the slip.

But his luck didn’t last long. On March 23, Amman was arrested from Khar and was remanded in police custody till March 30. He escaped from the lock-up on March 28 on the pretext of using the toilet.

Oshiwara police claimed that they had searched for the fugitive for over an hour, but in vain. Amman’s father moved HC in April. But two police affidavits later, his whereabouts are still not known.